﹡ ⊹ ⊰ Chapter 202 ⊱ ⊹ ﹡
Astana got goosebumps all over his body. He hesitantly took a step back.
Although he was wandering through the forest anxious about monsters appearing, the monster he feared the most was Perez, not a monster he had never seen before.
The red armor dyed green by the monster’s blood shone eerily.
Schwing!
The sword that Perez swung lightly at Astana made a scary sound. The blue fluid that was on the blade fell onto the ground like droplets of rain.
“I’ve already warned you.” Perez said in a low voice. “Keep out of my sight.”
“W-Wait a second!” Astana cried out, but it was too late.
Perez was already striding toward Astana with his sword.
“S-Stop!” Astana cried out belatedly.
“Second Prince!”
“Please stop!”
Astana’s henchmen, who once hesitated to get closer suddenly rushed in all at once.
“Your Highness!”
“If he dies here, you’ll regret it later on!”
The Academy trio, who had been guarding Perez’s back, also quickly approached Perez to stop him.
Astana trembled. Because Perez’s red eyes seemed to squeeze his neck. Even though his eyes were usually reluctant to look directly at him, something was different today.
The dark aura of the forest seemed to fluctuate in his eyes while he looked directly at Astana without blinking.
“Your Highness!” Lignite shouted, grabbing Perez by the shoulder.
Only then did Perez stop. But the eyes looking down on Astana were still there.
“Here, drink this!” Ted said, bringing something from the saddle of the horse.
It was a canteen made of black leather. Several more canteens of the same shape were tied to the horse to which Perez’s party’s luggage was tied.
“It’s because of the magic! You’re going crazy because of the magic!”
Everyone in the area heard Ted’s words.
“It’s safe to drink a little bit of this medicine!”
Ted grabbed the canteen and pressed it into Perez’s hands.
Gulp.
Perez took a sip of the liquid in the canteen and wiped his mouth roughly with his sleeve. The red eyes stayed the same, but the murderous light was gone.
“Magic must be driving people crazy…”
“It wasn’t called Pazzo Forest which means Madman's Forest for no reason…” Astana’s aides muttered in fear.
Then, a loud noise burst forth one after another.
Pong! Pong—! Pong!
In the end, three people set off their flares.
When Perez stepped back, Astana, whose complexion looked a bit better, glared at them.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but this forest is too dangerous…”
“That’s right, Your Highness should also return to safety with us…”
They made their excuses in a hurry.
However, Astana unexpectedly did not shout at them. Rather, he was caught off guard momentarily.
‘Should I leave with them too?’
His hand instinctively went for his flare.
“The owner and his dogs.” Perez laughed coldly.
“What?”
“That kind of monster would have been caught if all of you had come at it together.” Perez gestured with the tip of his chin, pointing to the corpse of the monster that had fallen to the ground.
Then, everyone’s eyes were on it at the same time.
“No way.”
“Was it that small?”
It had definitely been a huge monster. The pounding of its footsteps echoed through the ground.
But the size of the monster on the floor was around that of an adult male’s. Its muscular appearance was terrifying, but it was as Perez said.
It would have been enough if everyone had come at it all at once.
“Pfft, I can’t believe they were so scared of that.”
“Are all the aristocrats of the capital this pathetic?”
“Anyone with a sword could have struck it easily. Tsk, tsk.”
The Academy trio mocked them loudly, as if they were intentionally letting them hear.
“Let’s go.” Perez said as he turned his back on them. “Even if I don’t handle them today, they’ll still die in the forest.”
Having said that, Perez turned back and checked the saddle of his horse.
A satisfied smile lightly flashed across his face.
* * *
It’s now sunset. Those who finished hunting were returning to the entrance of the forest, one by one.
“Oh, they have three of them!”
“There were five over there!”
“Ah, aren’t they the smaller ones? Bigger monsters have higher scores!”
The nobles who had not participated and were wasting their time by playing cards started placing bets on the results of the hunt.
Then Perez, the Second Prince, appeared.
“Wow, seven!”
“He’s definitely got the most so far!”
The reaction of the nobles was intense. On the other hand, Astana, the first prince...
“Hmm, you came back empty-handed.”
“Wasn’t he in the middle of a bet with the Second Prince?”
Astana’s poor performance kept everyone from laughing. Most of the nobles had shut their mouths in order to trap the mockery that would unknowingly come out.
“No, who is that?!”
Someone pointed to a person who had just come out of the entrance.
“It’s Dame Ramona Braun!”
It was Ramona, who was dressed in blue armor, making her striking red hair stand out even more. A large object was hanging from Ramona’s saddle as she walked in with a hint of exhaustion.
“A monster’s head?”
“I can’t believe she caught such a big monster.”
“Isn’t that harder than catching ten of the smaller ones?”
Unlike the others who had cut an ear or the arm of a monster, it was Ramona, who had cut off the monster’s neck.
Ramona, who had inadvertently cut off her hair due to the rules looked a bit sad as she watched the other participants.
“Hoho, as expected of the Braun household!”
There were frequent mentions of the Braun Family.
“In the end, it’s a fight between His Highness the Second Prince and Dame Braun?”
“I still think the Second Prince will win!”
No one mentioned Astana. Astana’s existence was completely forgotten in the competition.
“Damn it.”
Astana could feel the eyes of Emperor Jovanes, staring at him from afar.
His face of disapproval was mixed with a look that said, “Of course, that’s all you can do.”
“Second Prince.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Good job. You've done nicely.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
However, Astana did not receive any flattery or praise. There was just the sound of a tongue clicking in disappointment.
“Well, Your Highness.”
It was at that moment that Bellesac sneaked something out from behind him.
“Let’s try drinking this before we go hunting tomorrow.”
“What’s this?”
“When I ran into the Second Prince’s group in the forest, I swiped one of the canteens they had drunk while they were talking about magic.”
“What is it?” Astana asked as his eyes sparkled.
“I wanted to steal more, but I was afraid that I’d get caught…”
“If there was such a thing, you should’ve told me earlier!” Astana shouted, snatching the canteen away quickly.
“Yes, with this…”
The monsters of the forest weren’t very scary.
Judging from the monsters Perez had killed with just one sword, there was no monster he couldn’t catch if about ten people attacked all at once.
However, he was still afraid of going into the forest because of the magic that was said to make people go crazy.
“There probably won’t be any more hallucinations either, right?”
Astana laughed. It was as if he had just won ten thousand horses.
“Well done, Bellesac.” Astana’s hand touched Bellesac’s shoulder.
“Th-Thank you, Your Majesty!” Bellesac, who had just briefly been complimented by the prince, didn’t know what to do.
“Let’s go back into the forest.” Astana said as he gave Perez one last look.
“Y-Your Highness!” The flustered Bellesac followed Astana and tried to shrink himself into something smaller.
“It’s too dangerous at night!”
“Who’s staying there until the night? There’s still an hour or two left until the sun sets completely, so I’m going to hunt some more. Everyone, follow me.”
Eventually, the people who had all died quietly on the inside slowly headed back into the forest.
“Uh, I think I should discourage them from going!” A flustered Lord Sloan, who had been escorting the Emperor today, shouted.
Reviewed by Admin
on
May 29, 2021
Rating:
No comments: